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"Smack for a Snack" at Kentucky Daycare

Posted by takyon on Monday October 03 2016, @04:06AM (#2091)
0 Comments
/dev/random

Kentucky day care worker cited for 'smack for a snack' game

The report says two male staff members would play a "Smack for a Snack" game. The report says the only way school-age children could get a yogurt is to allow the men to hit them with a stick on their leg and/or hand. State officials say at least two students had noticeable bruising. Lexington Police cited one staff member with second-degree assault.

An ingenious cost-cutting move that builds character.

More problems are noted in the article.

Hillary Clinton Hacked Audio

Posted by takyon on Saturday October 01 2016, @11:14PM (#2089)
5 Comments
News

https://theintercept.com/2016/09/30/hillary-clinton-center-right/

IN THE HACKED recording of a private conversation with campaign donors in February, Hillary Clinton distanced herself from progressive goals like “free college, free healthcare” and described her place on the political spectrum as spanning from the center-left to the center-right.

Clinton has been inconsistent in the past about espousing political labels. She has at times touted herself as stalwart liberal. For instance, she said last July: “I take a backseat to no one when you look at my record in standing up and fighting for progressive values.” But a few months later, she told a group in Ohio: “You know, I get accused of being kind of moderate and center. I plead guilty.”

The newly disclosed comments came in audio, apparently from hacked emails, that was revealed this week by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative blog run by a Republican communications strategist. Clinton was speaking at a Virginia fundraiser hosted by Beatrice Welters, the former U.S. ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, and her husband Anthony Welters, the executive chairman of an investment consulting firm founded by former Clinton aide Cheryl Mills.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-supporters-audio-leak-228997

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-jumps-leaked-audio-hillary-clinton-fundraiser/story?id=42499760

Lightbulbs and C++

Posted by turgid on Monday September 26 2016, @01:31PM (#2083)
6 Comments
Code

Welcome to my continuing nervous breakdown. I have some new cynicism that I feel the world would benefit from.

Q: How many C++ programmers does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: Ten. Six to explain to the world why C++ was the correct solution and the advanced techniques employed in implementing that solution and four to implement a partially-working solution in twice the time that the lone C programmer got a complete, correct solution designed, implemented, tested, documented and signed off in last time.

Q: How many C++ programmers does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: Ten. They all set to work analysing their previous partial and unreliable implementation and come up with a new design based on new language features in the latest standard that have been in LISP for over thirty years but they've never heard of before. They draw UML diagrams galore and fire up Visual Studio It Never Rains But It Pours Cloud Enterprise 365+ Edition. Six months later the project is scrapped and declared impossible.

Q: How many C++ programmers does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: We don't know, about ten maybe, but the new language standard has advanced features that will make changing lightbulbs not just a possibility, but achievable by ordinary programmers. Watch this space.

TU-2S Crashes

Posted by butthurt on Saturday September 24 2016, @06:32AM (#2079)
0 Comments
News

A Lockheed TU-2S, the training version of the U-2 reconnaissance jet, crashed on Tuesday near Sacramento, California during a training flight from Beale Air Force Base. Both of its pilots ejected, but one was killed.

in the news:
Fox News
Los Angeles Times
Washington Post

further information:
U-2S/TU-2S fact sheet

Only white supremacists use Oculus Rift!

Posted by takyon on Friday September 23 2016, @08:03PM (#2078)
5 Comments
/dev/random

Omagerd I can't even.

Some developers dropping Oculus support to protest founder’s politics [Updated]

Indie developers Polytron (best known for Fez) and Kokoromi (makers of the intriguing VR puzzle game SuperHyperCube), have joined in the developer protest against Oculus. Last year, SuperHyperCube was announced as a PlayStation VR exclusive "at launch," but today, the companies made it clear "we will not be pursuing Oculus support" for the game after that exclusivity expires.

"In a political climate as fragile and horrifying as this one, we cannot tacitly endorse these actions by supporting Luckey or his platform," they wrote (and announced via tweet). "If you are a voting citizen of the United States, please remember to register and make your voice heard this Nov. 8. Do not let bigotry, white supremacy, hate, and fear win."

Instead of making it so that any dumb VR headset can view our game, we will take a stand against bigotry (and having political opinions) and work only with Sony VRDRM.

Palmer Luckey, Millionaire Founder of Oculus Rift, Loves Donald Trump and Dates a Gamergater

It’s been an open secret for some time that Palmer Luckey, the 24-year-old founder of VR company Oculus Rift and heir apparent to the future of gaming, is a strange guy—the type who argues with his customers on Reddit and casually cosplays as My Little Pony characters. Turns out, he also appears to be an active supporter of Donald Trump and the alt-right, and in a long-term relationship with an avid Gamergater.

Rags-to-riches nerd dates a hottie, gets called out for it. No pussy for anti-social white nerds, EVER.

It's all a conspiracy to derail anti-social VR technology! Everyone who is anti-social will be exterminated! You must buy the upcoming Apple augmented reality product, which is pro-social! But not Google's, because that one is just as anti-social as VR, you problematihole!

I'm sure these articles would do "well" on the front page, but I don't want to put them there.

Maybe we need some new options for journals. For example, an option to nest journals (from friends only) between stories on the main page, or an RSS feed that lists all of the journals (if this one exists, I haven't seen it).

HOWTO Think Like A Tory

Posted by turgid on Sunday September 18 2016, @09:44AM (#2071)
7 Comments
Techonomics

Since the Great British Public voted by a narrow margin to show its un-wiped bare backsides to our closest, friendliest, most valuable trading partners (Brexit) in order to pursue potential trade deals with the economic powerhouse that is Australia, and to make TTIP easier to get done, I've had much less time and inclination to be interested in technology, unfortunately. Instead, I've been incubating a nervous breakdown playing at slapping the Kipper on the web sites of some national newspapers. My country (the UK) may be on the brink of disintegrating, after all.

We've suffered from simplistic right-wing ideology in government, and our social care systems and National Health Service (you know, that filthy commie thing we have where we pay money to have a free-at-the-point-of-use medical service for the benefit of us plebs and everyone else with no profit motive for corporations and the aristocracy) are. perhaps deliberately, being allowed to atrophy due to mismanagement and under-investment, so that they can be turned over to for-profit companies...

So here's my paranoid-delusional discourse. It applies to PHBs as well, so is relevant to the technology sector.

You have to think like a Tory (Conservative or UKIP) to understand the predicament the NHS and social care organisations are in.

To a Tory, the only thing with value is material wealth and anything that distracts from the maximisation of realising wealth is at best frivolous and at worst evil.

Little People (those not wealthy enough to live off their capital) are a danger to that if they are not work-producing units operating at maximum efficiency. So we have the phenomenon of the Useless Eaters. IDS, Gove and Osborne did their level best to reduce the number of Useless Eaters to protect the wealth.

However, sociopathic the Tory may be, he or she is not entirely stupid. They realise that amongst the population there are bleeding hearts and wooly-minded liberals who have an intrinsic irrepressible compulsion to value their fellow human being for no "rational" (wealth-related) reason.

Two things are implied here. The Tory realises that the "lefty" has a vote and influence on the political process and direction of society and, in order to maintain power, must pay lip-service to this. Hence, the NHS and welfare state is not quite dead yet, and is given almost enough money to limp along.

Secondly, the Tory knows that the "lefty" values the Useless Eater above wealth and so is intrinsically motivated (no money necessary) to provide assistance to said Useless Eater. Therefore the Tory knows that funding can be cut continually because the "lefty" will work itself to death out of this empathy for the Useless Eater.

Your PHB and its superiors may frequently say things like, "You're all professionals, so I know you'll be on board with this. We have to tighten our belts and redouble our efforts. We have to be grown-up about this. The market may be going through some difficulties, but we have to look after our investors." The PHB knows that your Little Person brain that feels intrinsic responsibility to your fellow human being can be used to produce more wealth for Righty with less expense.

Two cheeks of the same behind, as it were.

List of Dissenters

Posted by turgid on Saturday September 17 2016, @01:19PM (#2070)
29 Comments
Digital Liberty

I don't fit in here. In fact, I don't fit in anywhere. Life's more fun that way. Wouldn't it be boring if we were all god-fearing, gun-toting "free-market" corporate lackey Libertarians?

Something amusing has turned up in my messages today. Someone called Coniptor has made me his/her/its foe. It's quite a list.

Let the games begin.

Rick & Morty co-creator shows off free Accounting VR game

Posted by takyon on Wednesday September 14 2016, @04:41PM (#2067)
0 Comments

NPR Reports on the Kratom Scheduling Outrage

Posted by takyon on Tuesday September 13 2016, @02:41AM (#2063)
5 Comments

The Case Against James Comey

Posted by takyon on Monday September 12 2016, @04:36AM (#2062)
0 Comments
News

The Case Against James Comey

An interesting article about the man we love to hate, although this article focuses on his decision to hold a press conference about the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

We are probably stuck with Comey for another 6-7 years. Encrypt and patch.